DISINFO: Russia’s invasion is a denazification mission to stop NATO expansion
SUMMARY
When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s readiness for dialogue with the United States under the new administration of President Donald Trump, it was never intended to imply that mediation was needed to reach an agreement to halt the Russian military operation in Ukraine or to abandon the objectives that Russia considers essential to fully accomplish. These include: restoring Russian territory, protecting Russian citizens, eradicating Nazism, disarming the terrorist regime in Kyiv, protecting Russian national security from NATO's expansion toward the country's borders, and ensuring Russia's security, safety, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. Rather, what President Putin meant, and still means, is going straight to the roots of the problem, the conflict, and the crisis. What Moscow's efforts mean is stopping NATO's expansion eastward, preventing Ukraine from joining NATO, the right to self-determination for the residents of Donbas and Crimea, and reliable and credible security guarantees for all, not at the expense of the security of any of the parties.
RESPONSE
This statement contains multiple recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation claims, each reinforcing the Kremlin’s broader narrative justifying its unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These include the false claims that Russia is restoring its territory, that NATO expansion is a threat to Russian security, and that Ukraine is a Nazi or terrorist country.
Characterising the Ukrainian government and its supporters as "Nazis" is part of a broader pro-Kremlin narrative about "Nazi-ruled Ukraine". As it appears in the claim, it is a justification for Russian aggression in Ukraine starting with the illegal annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in February 2014, which has escalated into the ongoing full-scale invasion since 24 February 2022. See our article The Kremlin’s misuse of Nazism as a weapon of information manipulation.
Also, the claim that the occupied Ukrainian territories represent a "restoration of Russian territory" is historical revisionism and a recurrent negation of Ukrainian statehood. This claim also aims to justify Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the forceful and illegitimate annexation of Ukrainian territory.
The occupied territories (Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions) are internationally recognised territories of Ukraine, and remain legally part of Ukraine. The forced annexation of these regions took place amid a full invasion under military occupation, and after sham referenda that did not meet any international standard to be considered legitimate.
Furthermore, the claim about NATO expansion misrepresents the process of NATO enlargement. NATO does not expand, but considers the applications of candidate countries that want to join exercising their free will to decide alliance affiliation. NATO enlargement is not directed against Russia.
NATO is a defensive alliance with primary aims to maintain peace and safeguard the independence, security and territorial integrity of its members. NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. NATO's official policy is that "the Alliance does not seek confrontation and poses no threat to Russia".
Read also related cases: Failure of peace conference will rid Russian lands of neo-Nazis and restore ancestral lands; Russia is defending territories that have been part of it for centuries; The denazification of Ukraine justifies the destruction of its industry; Kyiv considers Nazi war criminals as heroes; Denazification of Ukraine remains relevant as Jews and Russians are threatened by Nazis.